 "Nasser Hussain lauded how Virat Kohli made Test cricket popular. Images: Reuters/PTI")
As India began their new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle on Friday with the first Test against England at Headingley , one familiar figure was notably missing – Virat Kohli. Arguably the biggest cricketing star of the last decade, Kohli has always drawn the most attention during an India match. But that won’t be the case in the ongoing five-match Test series against England.
Kohli retired from Test cricket last month after playing 123 matches in which he scored 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.
Nasser Hussain pays emotional tribute to Virat Kohli
Former England cricketer Nasser Hussain and Kohli’s former teammate Dinesh Karthik discussed the Test retirement of the cricketing superstar before the Headingley Test got underway. Hussain recalled the Lord’s Test between the two teams in 2021 when Kohli spurred India to victory with his inspirational leadership.
No one can forget his famous pep-talk in which he asked his bowlers and fielders to unleash “60 overs of hell” on the English batters.
“I was asked something by the ECB the other day, your favourite India, England moment historically, and there’ve been so many. It may not be my favourite, but it’s the one that stuck with me the most, was in the huddle that last morning at Lord’s when England were trying to chase down a score,” Hussain told Sky Sports.
“They unleashed hell and their side became a sort of mirror image of Kohli, the character, the feistiness of Siraj, Bumrah in your face, Shami in your face. Kohli, Test match cricket is so much better when Kohli was playing,” he added.
Hussain also said that while the cricketing world has always learned to move on, even from legends like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, it will be tough to do so with Kohli.
Impact Shorts
View All“We will move on. We moved on from Gavaskar to Tendulkar to Kohli and maybe to Gill, but Kohli added so much to this game of cricket,” Hussain said.